Sweet Adeline is a musical with music by Jerome Kern

Jerome Kern

Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...

, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Oscar Hammerstein II

Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...

 and original Orchestration by Robert Russell Bennett

Robert Russell Bennett

Robert Russell Bennett was an American composer and arranger, best known for his orchestration of many well-known Broadway and Hollywood musicals by other composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers. In 1957 and 2008, Bennett received Tony Awards...

. It premiered on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 in 1929. The story, set in the Gay 90s, concerns a Hoboken, New Jersey

Hoboken, New Jersey

Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...

 girl who, unlucky in love, becomes a Broadway star.

Production history

The musical opened at Hammerstein's Theatre

Ed Sullivan Theater

The Ed Sullivan Theater, located at 1697-1699 Broadway between West 53rd and West 54th, in Manhattan, is a venerable radio and television studio in New York City...

 on September 3, 1929 and closed March 22, 1930, after 234 performances. Produced by Arthur Hammerstein

Arthur Hammerstein

Arthur Hammerstein , was the son of Oscar Hammerstein I and uncle of Oscar Hammerstein II, was an opera producer and one of the writers of the song "Because of You," a major hit for Tony Bennett in 1951. Hammerstein wrote the song in 1940. It was used in the film I Was an American Spy...

 the show was directed by Reginald Hammerstein (the brother of Oscar Hammerstein II) and was choreographed by Danny Dare

Danny Dare

Danny Dare was an American choreographer, actor, director, writer, and producer of the stage, screen, and film....

.

The Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, Connecticut, produced the musical in May 1977, starring Cynthia Wells.

In 1985 a concert presentation was given at The Town Hall

The Town Hall

The Town Hall is a performance space, located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City. It seats approximately 1,500 people.-History:...

, New York as part of a Jerome Kern centennial celebration, which featured Judy Kaye

Judy Kaye

Judy Kaye is an American singer and actress. She has appeared in stage musicals, plays, and operas. Kaye has been in long runs on Broadway in the musicals The Phantom of the Opera, Ragtime and Mamma Mia!-Biography:...

 and Paula Laurence.

Sweet Adeline was produced in 1997 as part of City Center

New York City Center

New York City Center is a 2,750-seat Moorish Revival theater located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It is one block south of Carnegie Hall...

's Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert

Encores!

Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert is a program that has been presented by New York City Center since 1994. Encores! is dedicated to performing the full score of musicals that rarely are heard in New York City...

. The concert was directed by Eric D. Schaeffer

Eric D. Schaeffer

Eric D. Schaeffer is a theater director and producer based in Arlington, Virginia.He is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Signature Theatre., and is well known nationally for his re-invention of large American musicals for small black box venues...

, the choreograper was John DeLuca, adaption by Norman Allen with the scenic consultant John Lee Beatty

John Lee Beatty

John Lee Beatty is an American scenic designer. He was born in Palo Alto, California and grew up in Claremont. His father was dean of students at Pomona College and his mother had also work in academia. While he was English major at Brown University, he also directed, wrote, acted and drew posters...

, apparel coordinator Gregg Barnes

Gregg Barnes

Gregg Barnes is an American costume designer for stage and film. Barnes won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design and the Outer Critics Circle Award for his work on the 2006 production of The Drowsy Chaperone.-Career:Barnes grew up in the San...

, lighting by Howell Binkley

Howell Binkley

Howell Binkley is a professional lighting designer in New York City. He received the 2006 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a musical for Jersey Boys....

 and sound by Bruce Cameron

Bruce Cameron

Andrew Bruce Cameron is a Scottish Anglican bishop who served as the Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney and the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church....

. The cast starred Dorothy Loudon

Dorothy Loudon

Dorothy Loudon was an American comedy actress and singer. She won the 1977 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Miss Hannigan in Annie.-Early life and career:Loudon was born in...

, Tony Randall

Tony Randall

Tony Randall was a U.S. actor, comic, producer and director.-Early years:Randall was born Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer...

, Patti Cohenour

Patti Cohenour

Patti Cohenour is an American actress and singer. She was most recently seen in the Broadway production of The Light in the Piazza as Signora Naccarelli...

, Stephen Bogardus

Stephen Bogardus

-Biography:Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Bogardus graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in 1972 and Princeton University in 1976, where he was a member of the Princeton Nassoons and the Princeton Triangle Club.-Career:...

, Gary Beach

Gary Beach

Gary Beach is an American actor, primarily in Broadway musical theatre.-Biography:Beach was born in Alexandria, Virginia and later went on to graduate from the North Carolina School of the Arts, the same school as Terrence Mann, his Beauty and the Beast costar.Beach and his partner, Jeffrey...

, Myra Carter, Patrick Breen, Hugh Panaro

Hugh Panaro

-Life and career:Panaro was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and resided in the East Oak Lane section of the city with his family. As a schoolchild, he attended St. Helena’s parochial school in the adjoining Philadelphia neighborhood of Olney. He played organ for the parish church from age twelve...

, and Jacquelyn Piro.

Film

A film based on the stage musical was released in 1935 by Warner Brothers, directed by Mervyn LeRoy

Mervyn LeRoy

Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director, producer and sometime actor.-Early life:Born to Jewish parents in San Francisco, California, his family was financially ruined by the 1906 earthquake...

, and starred Irene Dunne

Irene Dunne

Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...

 as Adeline, Louis Calhern

Louis Calhern

Louis Calhern was an American stage and screen actor.- Early life :Louis Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt on February 19, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York. His family left New York City while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he grew up...

, Noah Berry and Hugh Herbert.

Reception

Opening just before the stock market crash, it received rave reviews, but the elaborate, old-fashioned piece was a step back from the innovations in Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat

Show Boat

Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...

(1927), or even Kern's Princess Theatre

Princess Theatre

The Princess Theatre was a joint venture between the Shubert Brothers , producer Ray Comstock, theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury and actor-director Holbrook Blinn...

 shows.

External links

• Internet Broadway Database
• http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60B12FB3D5C14738DDDAD0894D1405B898EF1D3NY Times review by Brooks Atkinson
  Brooks Atkinson
  Justin Brooks Atkinson was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960...
  
  , September 4, 1929]
• http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10613FB3C5D127588DDA00A94DC405B878BF1D3NY Times review by Robert Berkvist, April 29, 1977, of the Goodspeed Opera House
  Goodspeed Musicals
  Goodspeed Musicals, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and advancement of musical theater and the creation of new works, was formed in 1959 to restore the Goodspeed Opera House, located in East Haddam, Connecticut, to its original Victorian appearance. Each year, Goodspeed...
  
  revival]
• New York City Center webpage for Encores! previous seasons